I love Sarah J Maas's stories, they're so immersive and exciting with fast pace plots and badass female protagonists-and ACOTAR is no different.

I read this series a few years back and thought I'd give it a reread in honor of the new edition. What I noticed this time around, knowing what happens in the next books (don't worry, no spoilers) and that this is a Beauty and the Beast retelling (I didn't clock that first time around), definitely improved it for me. The first time I read it, I'd gone in cynical- I assumed the narrative was purely reactionary and the characters and relationships simplistic. But the narrative is actually carefully constructed, and the characters have more depth and are at the start of a profound arc.

Because of this series, I think I'll always read anything written by SJM- I know I'll enjoy it and become completely addicted.

As with "Throne of Glass" series, Sarah J. Maas delivers a book that is very cinematic. As a matter of fact, I think all her books, and this in particular can translate very well into graphic novels. For this modern retelling, I loved the book for the strong characters, the world building, the young love story, and the surprising ending.

I was SO thrilled to receive a copy of this title thanks to Netgalley & Bloomsbury Childrens USA. Sarah Maas is just incredible and I had yet to dive into this series, and this was the perfect excuse to try a fantasy series which isn't my typical genre. 

The characters and world created in this book kept me completely captivated and I know I will enjoy being a fan of ACOTAR, and have already ordered the next title to read! 

Feyre was courageous, strong and stubborn - a fantastic female character I could definitely get behind. Add in a little bit of romance and adventure, written with great detail and how can you not be hooked? 

4.5 stars, looking forward to what's next!

How would I say this.

I really love the story. First book I've read written by SJM and I am hooked all over. But there are things that made me give this a 3 star rating:

1. I am almost at the height of excitement and all my emotions are all over the place but suddenly the peak slows down. I almost slept in some parts of it. But thanks to the upward regain of that hiatus.

2. I am the only thinking on how illiterate Feyre is? No offense to her background. Riches to rags and she haven't learned reading or writing. No offense. But how in the world. (Yeah I should stop this).

3. I am so annoyed with her sisters. (Don't need to elaborate with it).

4. The epic riddle is so predictable. SOOOOOOOOO PREDICTABLEEEEEE.

5. That 3 trials is so unique in way (sarcastically). I will accept the first and last trial but the second one? Really? Just to pushed her emotions because of her illiteracy? SJM you can do more than this.

6. I expected a lot with Amarantha. So much. She is the evil queen you can ship. But what happened to you girl? One riddle, you run and scream like a baby girl. The fact that you hold the High Lords for years and you didn't planned anything if ever the riddle was solved? So what now? Na-ah.

7. FEYRE is likable but all you do girl is to fantasize Tamlin and almost with Rhysand. Really? ALL OVER THE PLACE.

I love the story line and its background.

After reading the book I told myself, "What problem could arise in ACOMAF?". But I got to see and read it for myself. I hope it gets nastier and more thriller

This was the Beauty and the Beast retelling I didnt know I needed!

One thing I love about retellings is that the story is already something you recognize, know, and love. I always liked Belle as a Disnet princess because she liked to read, and she was a bit of an outsider but still had a kind heart. The main character, Feyre, is definitely a darker version of that. 

This story follows Feyre, the youngest of three sisters who is literally just trying to survive. Her family lost their fortune, her mother passed away, and her father was beaten so bad that he can hardly walk. Feyre's sisters are kind of good for nothing, so the survival of the family is left in Feyre's hands. 

When she was out on a hunt, Feyre killed a wolf, not realizing that it was actually a fairy. Because of a treaty created between humans and fairies, Feyre is forced to give her life for taking one of theirs, and she's forced to go live in the fairy realm. I was not a fan of Feyre's family at all. They all lived off of what Feyre could bring to the table, and she was only begrudgingly helped when they could get money out of it. It was frustrating to learn about her family life, and I was actually excited for her to go to the land of the fairies.

The world-building in this book was so incredible! I found myself loving the parts where Feyre got to discover the lovely things about the fairy realm and a the little elements that made the place so magical. 

I had so much fun seeing the parallels between this story and Beauty and the Beast. The entire fairy land is under a curse, and they are forced to wear masquerade masks, similar to the Disney version where they are all cursed to be inanimate objects. Instead of a love for books, Feyre has a love for painting. Speaking of books, Feyre can't read, and it was frustrating to me that she had all this free time in her new life that she didn't take the time to learn.

One thing that I enjoyed about this book was that Feyre was 19! I thought this book would have the feel of a typical YA, but having Feyre be an older character really set the tone. It made sense that she was old enough to want to and be able to provide for her family instead of relying on her older family members. There were also some steamy bits that made me really fall in love with her relationship with Tamlin, her captor and the High Lord of the Fae. Some of her decision-making was definitely reminiscent of typical YA books with younger main characters, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book too much. 

I'm glad I finally got a chance to read this book, and I'm excited to continue with the series.

Updated review from 2017. Review also found on Booked J. 

I have one thing to get off my chest before gathering my thoughts: HOLY CRAP IN A SACK, WHY DID I PROCRASTINATE READING THIS FOR SO BLOODY LONG?! I'm serious. I know, I know, I know I should have listened to you guys ages ago about Sarah J. Maas but I'm stubborn and lazy and well actually mostly just lazy. All that matters is I got here--right? Just say yes.

Phew.

To say that A Court of Thorns and Roses was a wildly entertaining ride would be an absolute injustice to it. Because it was so much more than just fun and consistently captivating. I haven't had something literature related fuck-me-up so badly in ages (that's a lie but it's mostly not a lie if you close your eyes) but here we are. Sarah J. Maas, will you at least do me a solid and take me to dinner before screwing my emotions like this, mate? No? Fair.

Real talk: the hype surrounding this book, this series, is not unfounded. It's just brilliant in terms of magic and engrossing plots as well as seriously lovable (and hate-able) characters. Swooning over how perfect (I actually purred while typing perfect, if you need to mock something) Feyre is.

I would actually propose to her if that wasn't frowned upon, you know, given that she isn't real (shut up!) and if she were she'd probably punch me. To which I'd utter a dozen thank-yous and probably die a happy, fulfilled life.

And the other characters? I'm so intrigued by them all... Feyre's sisters, Nesta and Elain, Lucien, Rhysand, Tamlin, etc etc. I thought that the banter between a lot of characters (see: Feyre 'actual-Sass-Machine' Archeron communicating with literally anyone's bullshit) and can't wait to see the way the plots/relationships develop over the course of the next two books. I'm honestly so hung up on these characters already. Like, slap my knee and call me a total Faerie sucker (get your mind out of the gutter, thanks) but I'm hooked.

Completely hooked! To sum it up, A Court of Thorns and Roses is fantasy YA at its finest. Rocking characters. Steamy romances. Sizzling action. I'm completely obsessed and ready to devour the rest of the series and face my inevitable book hangover like High Lady I am. Cheers, S.J.M., you magical lady, you.

Sarah J Maas, the Q U E E N!! 
This is a beauty and the beast retelling and man does it hit me right in the feels. 
Feyre is a bad ass. I loved watching her grow into a powerful female lead in this book. 
This is a series I lost sleep over while reading. I would wake up in the middle of the night needing to read just a couple more pages (read chapters) because i just needed to know where it was going. 
My favourite scene is for sure her first challenge. 
if you havent read this book yet, you need to. 
you will wonder where it has been your whole life. 
Move over JKR and Cassandra Clare, Sarah J Maas has arrived and she is taking us by storm.

“I love you,’ he whispered, and kissed my brow. ‘Thorns and all.” ⁣
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If you love romance stories then you should read this one, even though it’s genre is fantasy, it’s simply a forbidden romance story taken place in a fantasy world. ⁣⁣
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𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 : ⁣⁣
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THERE ARE NO WORDS. NO WORDS to describe how much I LOVED THIS BOOK. I’m completely speechless and amazed that this incredible book was even created. I’ll admit the first 4 chapters were slow, I’m not much of a fantasy reader. But when I’d been recommended a book by so many different people I figure it’s time to try it out. I was in the worst slump too. Not expecting to even like it…..LET ME TELL YOU….it’s probably the best book I’ve ever read. I jumped into Maas' world. I didn’t know where I was, who I was, what day it was, it was like I left my home, and went to an entirely different world. It’s just so Incredibly well written. The characters are well developed, you can’t help but become obsessed with them. I’ve never experienced a book like it. ⁣Tamlin & Feyre, OH MY HEART, not only a Forbidden romance, but truly risking everything for the one that you love. The connection, the protection, the love story was everything. ⁣⁣
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Just do yourself a favor and give it a try :) ⁣⁣
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5/5⁣ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⁣⁣
2/3 ⁣🔥🔥⁣⁣

I will admit, I had some trouble getting off the ground with A Court of Thorns and Roses.

The story is a retelling and I felt that much of the beginning was unoriginal. Granted there was the introduction of the Fae to give it a spin, but the basics were all there and predictable. The cursed Beast who is running out of time. The curse that keeps a masquerade mask in place on the face of every Spring Court Fae (instead of turning them all into animate inanimate objects). The Beast who is trying too hard to court the Beauty but doesn't quite know how to impress her. The right-hand man that's trying to give the Beast tips about how to impress her. The gift that gives the Beauty a way to spend her new-found free time. All the classic strings of Beauty and the Beast.

But, midway through, things changed. We meet some new characters, go to a new place, and start to grasp the layers that this story is built on. The Fae courts of Prythian are caught in a dangerous game of politics, diplomacy, and backstabbing and the fate of everything that they are is in the hands of one human girl. It's enough to make me want to go back and read through certain passages to pick out the bits of conversations that were definitely meant for foreshadowing.

I am super intrigued by one of the new characters that will have big role in the second book, and the reviews for it are stellar - so I'll definitely be continuing with the series.

Such a good story teller. The author does not disappoint in this tale and her flair for telling Feyre story just had me on edge throughout. I am certainly looking forward to what other secrets and charms will unfold in the next book.

Wow! Maas has done it again! This fast-paced, sexy, fae world will surely drag you in. I didn't want to put it down! Introducing Feyre, a total badass with complex emotions, thought patterns, and descriptors. She ends up entangled in the fae realm with Tamlin in the Spring Court who may be a love interest or a foe, that's for you to decide! This steamy read shows you action, compassion, mystery, family love, friendship, and unknown territory.  A must-read for all fantasy lovers. 5/5 stars.

After years of hype and a long hiatus from reading anything in the fantasy genre, I thought I was going to love ACOTAR more than I did. The Beauty-and-the-Beast trope felt a bit too traditional; I was really hoping this modern take would have much more ~girl power~ and a more subversive romantic storyline. 

I sped through the first half - really excellent world creation and tension building - but began to lose interest afterwards. The climactic challenges were predictable, and the moments where I hoped for more character development did not deliver. I was hooked enough to want to read the next in the trilogy, and I am holding out hope for Feyre's character development and motivations as she falls deeper into the world of the High Fae.

This new edition is everything! 

This story is serving some major ‘Beauty and the Beast’ meets ‘Twilight’ realness - and I had no idea that was something I needed in my life until now. I completely understand all the hype surrounding this book - the world building, the writing, the pacing and, of course, ALL the Tamlin. Brilliance! 

It is safe to say that I am now a proud owner of a first class ticket on the SJM bandwagon. The woman is a queen.

Really fantastic introduction to an amazing trilogy. 
In the beginning of A Court of Thorns and Roses I assumed this was going to be another Beauty and the Beast retelling and they were to love happily ever after... however the darkness took over their happily ever after and its up to human girl feyre to save the day. 
We only meet a few characters but yet they all have unique characteristics that contribute wholley to the story. Tamlin is somewhat kind yet mysterious- dangerously attractive to Feyre. Lucian is sharp and damaged, but becomes an ally to Feyre after many tribulations. Rhys is a dark and brooding character that seems to offer a threat to feyre and tamlin at first, but as the book goes along we really discover the different layers to his character....
Sarah J Maas created a beautiful world full of twists and turns that had my gripped to this novel. Truly excellent, I cannot recommend enough!

Thank you so much to net galley for sending me a copy of this book. I think a lot of people overshadow how good ACOTAR is because ACOMAF. I would highly recommend this series!

Thank you NetGalley for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own. 

A Court Of Thorns And Roses 
By: Sarah J. Mass

REVIEW ☆☆☆☆
I remember reading A Court Of Thorns And Roses a couple of years ago when it was first released, and I loved it. By the time the second book was published, I had forgotten everything that happened in ACOTAR. I always intended to go back to the start and read this book again, but I didn't have time. Now, I will start again with the first book. I just recall that it was fantastic, and I absolutely loved reading ACOTAR.

An interesting Beauty and the Beast retelling. I loved the world and the twist on the fairytale. I enjoyed Feyre’s character and seeing her learn the faerie world. I did not really like Tamlin and didn’t love the romance between them. There were side characters I enjoyed much note than Tamlin. 
The world building and politics were entertaining and this is a very strong first book in a series.

1.5 stars

If I had to sum A Court of Thorns and Roses up in two words, those words would be mediocre and disappointing. I went into this expecting so much more than what is actually delivered, and there lies my downfall. Instead of the intense, fantastical story full of cunning and deceptive Fae I was met with an incessantly dull tale (that bordered on soft core porn at times) of a girl with a distinctly lacking personality. Needless to say, I was a bit let down.

I took an instant dislike to Feyre and it lasted for the entire book. Which made reading it interesting, as it's told from her perspective. It wasn't that she was a bad person or even a bad character, it was that she was so dull and prone to episodes of complete stupidity, but of course she was the only perfect member of her family and everyone else was being unjustly mean to her. She didn't come across as whiny but she was damn close to toeing the line. And the worst part was that she didn't learn from her mistakes. There was no character growth - for any of the characters. No one seemed to have had much thought put into their personality or their backstory (except perhaps Lucien, who quickly became my favourite and saved the entire book from getting zero stars) and I felt like I was still stuck at the beginning of the book even when I was half way through it. 

The plot, too, felt as if it had been made up on the spot as it was so wishy-washy and meandering. There were times when I wondered if Maas herself knew where she was going with it, as she took her sweet time explaining things - almost as if she needed to stall in order to figure it all out. For the first three quarters of the book - that's three hundred pages - absolutely nothing happens. Things are alluded to. There's a lot of growling. Feyre continues to be pig-headed and incapable of listening and learning. But nothing. happens. All the action is relegated to the final one hundred pages, and even then it's interrupted with scenes of more nothing. I kid you not - just when things started to hook me in we have a chapter of Feyre sat in a cell wondering if she has a fever or not. If you're going to interrupt the one thing that's holding my attention it had better be for something bloody important.

But there is no real sense of importance or urgency throughout A Court of Thorns and Roses, despite the main situation being time sensitive. But we don't know that until it's all too late anyway, so whoops, oh well. The reason for why Feyre (and therefore we the reader) doesn't know anything feels so sloppy when it's finally revealed, and it's all very convenient and specific to her. Add to this that it's a complete info dump rather than sneakily fed to us as the story progresses, and it makes you question just how smart and cunning these Fae are. All in all, it was just a very disappointing answer to an necessarily drawn out question.

Yet I can't help but feel that if the plot hadn't been so drawn out and long-winded there just... wouldn't be a plot at all. And when there's nothing going on and I don't even like the characters, it's very hard to continue. A Court of Thorns and Roses is the closest I have ever come to not finishing a book - and I always finish books as I can't bear leaving anything unfinished. But I just didn't care at all and I ended up more disgusted (I've never read such cringey young adult sex scenes) and angry (Feyre is constantly manipulated and abused and yet people love her abusers?) than anything. And the cherry on top of the weak plot was the complete cop out of an ending! 

If it hadn't have been for Lucien and the brief bit of action we were granted, this review would have been a lot more damning, as I can't even say the writing saved it for me. Things felt choppy thanks to the constant use of short sentences, I couldn't take in the overly rich descriptions of some things, and the abuse of dashes completely butchered some sentences, rendering them unreadable and in-comprehensive.

I can't help but feel let down by this, despite the fact that I didn't enjoy it. I wanted to. I really, really wanted to, believe me.

A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first book in a trilogy of the same name. It is a Beauty and the Beast retelling told from the point of view of Feyre, a young woman who gets kidnapped to Prythian - the land of Fae, because she killed a wolf who was actually a transformed Fae.

This was my third time reading this novel, and I was surprised that I'd enjoyed it more than the previous two times. Although I still cringed a bit when certain characters were speaking - because no matter the situation, they couldn't say one normal sentence, I actually enjoyed the writing a lot. Sarah J. Maas has a specific kind of prose that can be both epic and full of action and sweetly poetic at the same time, and her biggest talent is that you want to be in the book with the characters - which I absolutely ADORE. She always finds the right balance between negative and positive things.
What still didn't appeal to me, though, was the romance  between Tamlin and Feyre: it was just too insta-lovey and unbelievable. I didn't really see WHY they'd fallen in love in the first place.

In conclusion, the good (the worldbuilding, the writing and the atmosphere) outweighed the bad (the annoying dialogue and the not-so-well written romance) and I'd say I liked the story. I cannot but compare it to the second and third book and I have to say, although a decent read, it is no match for them.

Love it! I love this book so much. I loved Feyre and her character development through this book and just wait until you read a court of mist and fury.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me a copy for an honest review!